My Apple Curse Strikes Again, but Apple Store Saves the Day

I’ve had my share of ‘bad Apples,’ but none was nearly as bad as the MacBook Pro I bought four months ago. Apple products have something against me- maybe because they have to share my attention and desk-space with numerous PC notebooks. That’s why I wasn’t completely surprised when my MacBook Pro’s display did a great Zebra impersonation today. I was completely surprised by the treatment I got at the Apple Store and had one of the best customer service experiences I’ve had in a long time.

I bought the $2,499 2.5GHz MacBook Pro less than four months ago. Things started off okay, but it crashed way too often, overheated several times (100-degrees Celsius) and the display quickly developed little clusters of grey dots. Apple replaced the entire display assembly, but it didn’t fit quire right and the magnet that actuates the sleep/wake function was missing. Another new display assembly was installed and I was relatively happy until today.

I was at a Peet’s Coffee & Tea shop in Silicon Valley editing some videos when the display suddenly grew zebra stripes. I restarted the MacBook Pro and the stripes went away for a while, but they came back again and again. I shot this picture of the problem:

As you can imagine, I couldn’t work with the display in this condition and the Lenovo S10 I had with me isn’t cut out for video editing. I used my iPhone to find the nearest Apple store and scheduled an appointment at the Genius Bar at 3:25.

I was greeted by a very friendly Swiss Apple employee who was on his last day of training in the U.S. before returning to Zurich to help open a new Apple store. When I booted my MacBook Pro up the display looked just fine and I couldn’t replicate the problem so I showed him the above photo. He offered to check the notebook in for repair and worst case scenario they’d have to replace the logic board and/or the display itself.

Obviously my MacBook Pro has already had its fair share of downtime and I don’t think it’s reasonable for a notebook to be subject to three major repairs within the first four months of purchase. He said he completely understood my frustration and asked one of the Genius Bar managers to assist.

The Genius Bar manager then asked me something that I’ve NEVER heard before from any computer customer service person. “What would be a satisfactory solution be for you?,” he asked.

That might seem like a simple question, but it’s something that more companies should ask to resolve customers’ issues. It shows that they’re actually trying to solve your problem rather than just run you through their standard operating procedures.

I told him that all I wanted was to walk out of the store with a machine that I could count on and not have bring back for yet another repair. I told him that I thought my MacBook Pro was a cursed lemon and that I didn’t think I was getting $2,499 of value out of it because of the multiple display issues. I asked him if he had a replacement unit he could swap out for me. I told him I wasn’t looking for a free upgrade and that I’d be perfectly happy if they had the “old” 2.5GHz matte MacBook Pro if he had one available.

He kindly explained to me that he normally can’t swap out machines that can be repaired, and especially those that have a single problem. He asked me where I purchased it (Amazon), if I had Apple Care (no) and a few other general questions about what I used the MacBook Pro for. He then disappeared into the back room for about 10 minutes.

When he returned he told me that they’d completely sold out of the old MacBook Pros with the matte displays and gave me two choices. Either I could leave the notebook for repair and he’d expedite the service or he would swap my lemon of a MacBook Pro for a newer model, which is only available with a glossy display. I really didn’t want to give up the matte display, but I really wanted a machine that “just worked.” The Genius made me sign a form that said I was surrendering the old MBP for a new MacBook Pro (2.53Ghz, 4GB memory, 320GB hard drive and NVIDIA 9600GT with 512MB of VRAM) and that I would never ever get to see it again. If I wanted to get any data off of it I had to do it right then.

I should note that I was completely calm in articulating my MacBook Pro’s issues and my level of frustration. I know that these guys aren’t personally responsible for my computer problems. The result was they were willing to bend over backwards to get me a new machine with relatively little hassle. I could see that the more irate customers whining about their busted Apple gear weren’t getting the same level of attention, respect or offers of replacement gear.

I hooked up the new MacBook Pro to my old one with a FireWire 800 cable. I booted the old MacBook Pro into target disk mode and used the migration assistant to transfer more than 200GB of data onto the new machine. The process was painfully slow and took nearly three and a half hours to complete, but I was treated to yet another round of excellent customer service.

While I was transferring my data to the new computer, another Genius was helping a college student and her mom with a MacBook. Apparently the hard drive was acting up and the battery wasn’t lasting as long as it used to. It also had several cracks on its case. The student decided she’d just buy a new aluminum MacBook. I told her that she could probably get a few hundred bucks for the MacBook on eBay even if it wasn’t in tip-top shape and that someone like myself could fix it up.

There was a shift-change and a new Genius stopped by to make sure the data migration was going ok. We struck up a conversation about MacBooks and iPhones. He was really friendly and was sympathetic to my MacBook Pro issues and to the fact that I was blowing a big chunk of my day sitting at the Genius bar.

The student purchased her new MacBook and her mom came back and asked me if I’d be interested in buying the MacBook for $350. I usually don’t have nearly that much in cash in my wallet, but I’d just cashed a check and we made a deal for $325. I now had the fortune of getting a 15-month old MacBook (2.16GHz, 1GB, 120GB RAM and DVD SuperDrive) for $325 that needed what I considered relatively minor work.

The new Genius dude asked me if he could take a look at it and commented that the cracks were most likely due to overheating and that he could repair the MacBook for me since Apple had extended the MacBook’s case warranty for three years past the original date of purchase. After further inspection he found more minor cracks and ordered me a completely new top case, hinge cover, lower cover and keyboard for my newly acquired MacBook.

He then booted the MacBook from an external drive and was able to get the hard drive to mount. He did a clean-install of OSX and iLife 08. He also wrote an order for the technician to completely go through the machine and if they found anything wrong with the hard drive they’d replace it.

I was thrilled that he’d gone the extra mile to check out my new (used) purchase and was proactive about seeing how Apple could get it back into shape even though I didn’t ask for anything. He also told me to yank my 4GB memory upgrade out of my old MacBook Pro when the data transfer was done since it was third-party RAM. It was time for him to go home, but yet another Genius stepped in to make sure everything was going well with my data migration. He offered to watch all of my gear while I went to grab a slice of pizza.

The migration was taking much longer than I’d expected (3+ hours), but I did get to watch how the Genius Bar staff interacted with several customers. All of the customers that were even half-way polite received what I consider excellent service and the staff was extremely patient, often going above and beyond to make sure they walked away with a suitable resolution.

Those that berated the staff or were rude received polite service as well, but were more often than not told they’d have to come back in 2-5 days to pick up their repaired Macs, iPhones and iPods. I’m not suggesting the Geniuses punished the rude customers, but they definitely pulled strings for polite customers and repaired units while they waited in some cases.

Obviously retail stores are costly investments, but I wish more notebook manufacturers had them. The Genius Bar’s sense of community, instant diagnosis and quick resolutions are unmatched by any other manufacturer. While I really enjoy my other notebooks I would have had to wait several days to several weeks for a defective display to be repaired after mailing it in. I wouldn’t have bought the used MacBook and its previous owner wouldn’t have had a few hundred bucks to put towards her new purchase. A guy that bought a MacBook Air in the morning that was dead on arrival wouldn’t have been able to get a nearly instant replacement when he returned it.

Finally at around 8:15PM the migration assistant finished and my new MacBook Pro was ready to go. I bid good riddance to my old MacBook Pro and took my new MacBook Pro home. I started the afternoon angry and disapointed in Apple, but the level of service impressed me so much I walked away from it all with a smile on my face.

UPDATE (11/9): It was late Thursday afternoon when the Mac Geniuses checked the newly acquired MacBook in for repair and I was told it would be 5-7 days until I’d be able to pick it up since they didn’t have all of the parts in stock. I got a call today (Sunday) letting me know that it was ready to pick up and all repairs had gone ok. I’m guessing the parts were ordered on Friday, arrived on Saturday and installed on Sunday.This is a ridiculously fast turnaround- Apple took less than half of the estimated time to complete the repair. Simply amazing.

43 Responses

Excellent article – and exactly right on! I should know, I was a Lead Mac Genius… What a lot of people forget is a single Mac Genius may see 40+ customers in an 8 hour shift, and at least at my store, 75% of those customers left with a solution. Everyone I ever worked with in Apple Retail was committed to giving the customer a positive experience, no matter what brought them in the store. The stress levels were incredibly high, and the iPhone brought in hordes of customers who came in braced for a subpar experience – because that was all they had ever had before with their phone company or computer purchase. Those were the most difficult customers to deal with, because they already had a chip on their shoulders… well then there were the rare few who’s sense of entitlement stretched well beyond reality 🙂

Excellent article – and exactly right on! I should know, I was a Lead Mac Genius… What a lot of people forget is a single Mac Genius may see 40+ customers in an 8 hour shift, and at least at my store, 75% of those customers left with a solution. Everyone I ever worked with in Apple Retail was committed to giving the customer a positive experience, no matter what brought them in the store. The stress levels were incredibly high, and the iPhone brought in hordes of customers who came in braced for a subpar experience – because that was all they had ever had before with their phone company or computer purchase. Those were the most difficult customers to deal with, because they already had a chip on their shoulders… well then there were the rare few who’s sense of entitlement stretched well beyond reality 🙂

And having been ‘behind the counter’ it does make a difference if as a customer you come in ‘ready to kill’. Being calm and rational will usually mean I try my absolute best to help you. If you’re screaming, insulting and carrying on I’ll still serve you but I will try my best to get you _out_ of the store.

Apple store employees also has a lot of leeway in how costumers are dealt with. Many retailers have very pat and strict paths for dealing with displeased customers. More often than not store clerks will want to help you but they are hamstrung by corporate policy.

This is one reason why the service is often so good at Apple’s stores. A lot of the front line decisions are up to the employees and retail policy is mainly a guideline only. Thus, if you treat the person behind the counter well, their natural inclination is to also treat you well.

And having been ‘behind the counter’ it does make a difference if as a customer you come in ‘ready to kill’. Being calm and rational will usually mean I try my absolute best to help you. If you’re screaming, insulting and carrying on I’ll still serve you but I will try my best to get you _out_ of the store.

Apple store employees also has a lot of leeway in how costumers are dealt with. Many retailers have very pat and strict paths for dealing with displeased customers. More often than not store clerks will want to help you but they are hamstrung by corporate policy.

This is one reason why the service is often so good at Apple’s stores. A lot of the front line decisions are up to the employees and retail policy is mainly a guideline only. Thus, if you treat the person behind the counter well, their natural inclination is to also treat you well.

I wish more salespeople had learned the trick of asking â€œWhat would be a satisfactory solution be for you?â€ In my experience (which includes 20 years of retail management) if you ASK them, customer desires are much more reasonable. If they feel they have to drag concessions out of the representative, the demands quickly escalate. They assume it’s an adversarial relationship.

At that, most customers want someone to listen to and understand their complaint more than anything else.

I wish more salespeople had learned the trick of asking â€œWhat would be a satisfactory solution be for you?â€ In my experience (which includes 20 years of retail management) if you ASK them, customer desires are much more reasonable. If they feel they have to drag concessions out of the representative, the demands quickly escalate. They assume it’s an adversarial relationship.

At that, most customers want someone to listen to and understand their complaint more than anything else.

I had the exact same question asked me when I took my new MacBook in a few months ago. It was a few weeks old at the time, and the trackpad button was very difficult to push down.

I was surprised at the question, I don’t remember what I stammered back, but they ended up replacing the trackpad. I didn’t feel that I deserved a new MacBook, so I was (and am) very happy with the resolution of the issue.

Of course, my ideal situation would be to have received a good trackpad in the first place.

I had the exact same question asked me when I took my new MacBook in a few months ago. It was a few weeks old at the time, and the trackpad button was very difficult to push down.

I was surprised at the question, I don’t remember what I stammered back, but they ended up replacing the trackpad. I didn’t feel that I deserved a new MacBook, so I was (and am) very happy with the resolution of the issue.

Of course, my ideal situation would be to have received a good trackpad in the first place.

Fantastic article! I have always admired the Apple computers for their style and engineering genius, but hearing about excellent customer service for both retail and repair situations makes me appreciate them even more.

Fantastic article! I have always admired the Apple computers for their style and engineering genius, but hearing about excellent customer service for both retail and repair situations makes me appreciate them even more.

This is AWESOME to hear! I have had a few issues with my C2D MBP and I took it to the Legacy Village Store in Ohio. The issue that really made me mad was when the wires inside my original power brick started smoking and somehow it was my fault?! I have had better service at Walmart than at that store, and that’s not easy for me to say, but it’s true.

This is AWESOME to hear! I have had a few issues with my C2D MBP and I took it to the Legacy Village Store in Ohio. The issue that really made me mad was when the wires inside my original power brick started smoking and somehow it was my fault?! I have had better service at Walmart than at that store, and that’s not easy for me to say, but it’s true.

Speaking as a former MG myself, I would say you’re experience was quite accurate. Although, I’d have been happy enough to let the migration assistant work its magic in the back, thereby allowing you to leave the store and not lose an entire day, pick it up whenever was convenient.

Just the same, Apple retail afforded me a lot of freedoms not seen in typical retail establishments. My managers always let me position the solution I wanted to give the customer if it fell within reasonable expectations.

A lot of people think that rudeness gets them what they desire. I was always eager to help those customers who treated a Genius like a fellow human being, those with attitude and anger didn’t receive sub-par service, but I didn’t go out of my way to help them- I mainly wanted them out of my sight ASAP. As with everything in life, you tend to catch more flies with sugar than vinegar.

In the end I left Apple Retail because it was beyond stressful, the hours were killer and the pay was subpar. Medical school has been a better bet, I miss my co-workers and the great customers, I’ll never miss those evil customers.

Speaking as a former MG myself, I would say you’re experience was quite accurate. Although, I’d have been happy enough to let the migration assistant work its magic in the back, thereby allowing you to leave the store and not lose an entire day, pick it up whenever was convenient.

Just the same, Apple retail afforded me a lot of freedoms not seen in typical retail establishments. My managers always let me position the solution I wanted to give the customer if it fell within reasonable expectations.

A lot of people think that rudeness gets them what they desire. I was always eager to help those customers who treated a Genius like a fellow human being, those with attitude and anger didn’t receive sub-par service, but I didn’t go out of my way to help them- I mainly wanted them out of my sight ASAP. As with everything in life, you tend to catch more flies with sugar than vinegar.

In the end I left Apple Retail because it was beyond stressful, the hours were killer and the pay was subpar. Medical school has been a better bet, I miss my co-workers and the great customers, I’ll never miss those evil customers.

I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by my Apple Store experience. I’ve been to the San Francisco Apple Store and Palo Alto store lots of times and have never seen the same level of customer service. This particular store had an outstanding team that really took their time with customers and they seemed overly happy with their jobs (in a good way). The other stores, especially San Francisco’s flagship are extremely busy and things get hectic. I’m not saying their guys are worse at their jobs or anything, but both customers and workers more stressed/hurried.

I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by my Apple Store experience. I’ve been to the San Francisco Apple Store and Palo Alto store lots of times and have never seen the same level of customer service. This particular store had an outstanding team that really took their time with customers and they seemed overly happy with their jobs (in a good way). The other stores, especially San Francisco’s flagship are extremely busy and things get hectic. I’m not saying their guys are worse at their jobs or anything, but both customers and workers more stressed/hurried.

“…but they definitely pulled strings for polite customers and repaired units while they waited in some cases.”

Ahuh. Don’t piss off the cook. The Geniuses have the power to do literally *anything* it takes to resolve your issue.

Shriek, name-call, and stomp, and you’ll get nothing. Act as you did, and you’ll be taken care of. Simple as that. Fair? Maybe not, but neither is cussing, yelling, and making the life of someone tasked to help you miserable. You’d be surprised at how preciously few people realize this paradigm.

“…but they definitely pulled strings for polite customers and repaired units while they waited in some cases.”

Ahuh. Don’t piss off the cook. The Geniuses have the power to do literally *anything* it takes to resolve your issue.

Shriek, name-call, and stomp, and you’ll get nothing. Act as you did, and you’ll be taken care of. Simple as that. Fair? Maybe not, but neither is cussing, yelling, and making the life of someone tasked to help you miserable. You’d be surprised at how preciously few people realize this paradigm.

I had a very similar experience at the Genius Bar. In the past 8 weeks I have been given two new MBP’s in response to problems. The first was in early September when my Santa Rosa 15″ was exhibiting screen problems after 14 months of ownership. After two visits to the Genius Bar and continued problems the Genius told me he was going to replace my machine with a new one. I told him that was incredibly generous. He replied “I am glad I work for a company that empowers me to solve problems!” I stood there in awe for a moment, and said “I love this company!” Six weeks later I was back in the Apple Store: my new machine would not power up. I had important work to get done, and was distraught. The Genius looked at my book and said “would it be OK if I replaced this with one of the new MacBook Pros? I just don’t feel comfortable after all you’ve been through to ask you to settle for a new machine that’s had significant repair.”

I had a very similar experience at the Genius Bar. In the past 8 weeks I have been given two new MBP’s in response to problems. The first was in early September when my Santa Rosa 15″ was exhibiting screen problems after 14 months of ownership. After two visits to the Genius Bar and continued problems the Genius told me he was going to replace my machine with a new one. I told him that was incredibly generous. He replied “I am glad I work for a company that empowers me to solve problems!” I stood there in awe for a moment, and said “I love this company!” Six weeks later I was back in the Apple Store: my new machine would not power up. I had important work to get done, and was distraught. The Genius looked at my book and said “would it be OK if I replaced this with one of the new MacBook Pros? I just don’t feel comfortable after all you’ve been through to ask you to settle for a new machine that’s had significant repair.”

Believe, the unique one we have in Italy, is crap… You’ll never see here in Rome that kind of service. Just went back today from there, 1 Genius man at the bar (12 meters or more of bar, with at least 18 people waiting) and a lot of Genius *dark blue shirt* assisting the Specialist in the sales arena. Additionally, I found (and unfortunately for the second time in a month) an arrogant Italian Genius (not to be modest, but I believe to be a bit more Genius than him) treating me like a piece of …. Funny thing is that we are a company which makes is business on mac, we have tons of apple care, tons of pro care, and a big quantity of pc.

I don’t know if apple will never read this comment, but please, send your inspector (Mistery Client) in Rome… during the weekends… you’ll find a very interesting environment.

If you are in Italy or Rome and want to have Apple to take care of your laptop… is worth to take a cheap plane and jump to London.

Believe, the unique one we have in Italy, is crap… You’ll never see here in Rome that kind of service. Just went back today from there, 1 Genius man at the bar (12 meters or more of bar, with at least 18 people waiting) and a lot of Genius *dark blue shirt* assisting the Specialist in the sales arena. Additionally, I found (and unfortunately for the second time in a month) an arrogant Italian Genius (not to be modest, but I believe to be a bit more Genius than him) treating me like a piece of …. Funny thing is that we are a company which makes is business on mac, we have tons of apple care, tons of pro care, and a big quantity of pc.

I don’t know if apple will never read this comment, but please, send your inspector (Mistery Client) in Rome… during the weekends… you’ll find a very interesting environment.

If you are in Italy or Rome and want to have Apple to take care of your laptop… is worth to take a cheap plane and jump to London.

I had an excellent customer service experience with an Apple Store as well. My iPhone was having signal problems that I couldn’t reproduce in the store. The Genius inspected it for less than a minute and replaced it for me on the spot. Conversely, I’ve had nothing be nightmares with HP’s service when my home computer went down twice. Both times, it was cheaper and less time consuming to fix it myself or get a friend to diagnose the problem at least. My next computer is definitely going to be a Mac.

I had an excellent customer service experience with an Apple Store as well. My iPhone was having signal problems that I couldn’t reproduce in the store. The Genius inspected it for less than a minute and replaced it for me on the spot. Conversely, I’ve had nothing be nightmares with HP’s service when my home computer went down twice. Both times, it was cheaper and less time consuming to fix it myself or get a friend to diagnose the problem at least. My next computer is definitely going to be a Mac.

Most people don’t figure the Genius is pretty much *solely* in charge of the solution they’ll get. If the customer treats me with a modicum of respect, I’m going to bat for that customer and get him everything he or she deserves. If they treated me like slime, I’d probably do the minimum amount of help required and they wouldn’t be any happier.

Most people don’t figure the Genius is pretty much *solely* in charge of the solution they’ll get. If the customer treats me with a modicum of respect, I’m going to bat for that customer and get him everything he or she deserves. If they treated me like slime, I’d probably do the minimum amount of help required and they wouldn’t be any happier.

What is amazing to me is this is the second story that I’ve heard of Apple with unbelievably bad hardware quality, and yet the owner is happy due to customer service. Personally I just buy hardware that runs for years without problems and skip the whole ordeal (my last system ran for 7 years with no problems, retired it still running like a champ to get faster stuff)… I’m glad that they are able to compensate for terrible build quality with head count.

What is amazing to me is this is the second story that I’ve heard of Apple with unbelievably bad hardware quality, and yet the owner is happy due to customer service. Personally I just buy hardware that runs for years without problems and skip the whole ordeal (my last system ran for 7 years with no problems, retired it still running like a champ to get faster stuff)… I’m glad that they are able to compensate for terrible build quality with head count.

Dan- I’ve had several Apple products fail miserably and have blogged about it. Unfortunately, virtually every brand has DOA and defective products. Why I’m happy about the customer service here is not only the final resolution, but the speed of the resolution. As I said, I wish some of the other notebook manufacturers had stores so they could do similar turnarounds. Of course Sony has stores, but I’ve never brought a VAIO in for repair and as far as I know they don’t do repair on site.

Dan- I’ve had several Apple products fail miserably and have blogged about it. Unfortunately, virtually every brand has DOA and defective products. Why I’m happy about the customer service here is not only the final resolution, but the speed of the resolution. As I said, I wish some of the other notebook manufacturers had stores so they could do similar turnarounds. Of course Sony has stores, but I’ve never brought a VAIO in for repair and as far as I know they don’t do repair on site.

@unfair- The Genius did council her that it’d be cheaper to repair the machine instead of buying a new one. I think the girl wanted a new MacBook (faster, nicer, etc.). She would’ve still needed to buy a new battery ($99), the hard drive (Apple charges $300 for parts/labor) was working sporadically and I’m going to have to replace it. I just picked it up today and it does work, but it clearly has some issues. Apple didn’t replace the drive, just the case.

@unfair- The Genius did council her that it’d be cheaper to repair the machine instead of buying a new one. I think the girl wanted a new MacBook (faster, nicer, etc.). She would’ve still needed to buy a new battery ($99), the hard drive (Apple charges $300 for parts/labor) was working sporadically and I’m going to have to replace it. I just picked it up today and it does work, but it clearly has some issues. Apple didn’t replace the drive, just the case.